Casino Chronicle


Book Description




No Work and All Play


Book Description

The contents of the book describe the many examples of the types of characters and crazy daily episodes that an average person who selects a career in casino hotel management will witness and are part of during a lifetime in such a career. The book is really not about me, but it is a lifetime chronicle of my career where every work day is fun and there is almost never any drudgery. The three most interesting characters in the book are none other than a tycoon named Donald Trump, a Casino Icon named Jack Binion and a baseball legend named Mickey Mantle. The book also describes many other very interesting real-life persons in my career from Mob-connected people to other well known casino operators of their day. Most of these characters are not famous celebrities but their stories are sometimes even more humorous than those of Trump or Mantle. The stories about these people are real and actually happened, although the actual dates may be incorrect in some cases and some of the intricate details may be embellished to improve the stories. None of the tales degrade any of the characters in my book, but I do tell humorous stories about all of them that demonstrate they all have to put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us. It is not a text book, but it can serve as a good primer for a person considering making gaming hospitality their career objective. The seven different sections of the book are written to show how a person entering a casino hospitality position might evolve from the lowest level in a casino organization to a very high level of management, and that it generally takes many years to accomplish. It also describes the different relationships that one develops in any type of business and I use real people to illustrate how they each fit into the different types of relationships.




Gambling on the American Dream


Book Description

Provides a historical perspective for understanding the exponential growth of casinos in the United States since 1990, by telling the story of Atlantic City, New Jersey since the 1970s. This work uses oral history to focus on the human stories of the region in addition to the broader story of economic and social impacts.




Twentieth-century Texas


Book Description

A collection of fifteen essays which cover Indians, Mexican Americans, African Americans, women, religion, war on the homefront, music, literature, film, art, sports, philanthropy, education, the environment, and science and technology in twentieth-century Texas.




Gaming


Book Description




The Madness of March


Book Description

Every spring, the first four days of the NCAA men s basketball tournament attracts a horde of basketball bettors to Las Vegas. From the tip-off of the tournament s first game on Thursday morning to the final whistle on Sunday, throngs of bettors overwhelmingly male sit in smoky casinos obsessively watching as many as forty-eight college basketball games. This book immerses readers in that action. In The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, Alan Jay Zaremba travels to The Strip and gives us a front-row view of the betting culture that surrounds the frenzied first weekend of the tournament. Alternating between humorous accounts of gamblers exploits and cultural theories on sports in society, Zaremba provides an engaging analysis of the sporting ritual that such gambling has become. With forays into the history of the tournament, the background of sports betting, and a little betting of his own, Zaremba raises the question of whether this subculture of March Madness is a blessing or a curse and what, finally, it all means.




On the Border


Book Description

A stunningly beautiful backdrop where cultures meet, meld, and thrive, the U.S.–Mexico borderlands is one of the most dynamic regions in the Americas. On the Border explores little-known corners of this fascinating area of the world in a rich collection of essays. Beginning with an exploration of mining and the rise of Tijuana, the book examines a number of aspects of the region's social and cultural history, including urban growth and housing, the mysterious underworld of border-town nightlife, a film noir treatment of the Peteet family suicides, borderlands cuisine, the life of squatters, and popular religion. As stimulating as it is lively, On the Border will spark a new appreciation for the range of social and cultural experiences in the borderlands.




The Casino and Society in Britain


Book Description

This book is a study of the British casino industry and how it has been shaped by criminality, prohibition, regulation and liberalization since the beginning of the First World War. The reader will gain a detailed knowledge of the history, culture, identity and participants within the British casino industry, which has, to date, escaped the attention of a dedicated historical and criminological investigation. This monograph fills this gap in inquiry while drawing on primary source material that has not been used previously, including, but not confined to, records in the National Archives relating to the Gaming Board of Great Britain and the Metropolitan Police. In addition to archive material, oral histories, newspapers, published journals and books have been utilised and referenced where appropriate. Envisaged to close a gap in historical research, this book will be of interest to historians, criminologists, regulators, students and individuals interested in gambling, society and cultural history.







Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico


Book Description

In Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico, historians and anthropologists explain how evolving notions of the meaning and practice of manhood have shaped Mexican history. In essays that range from Texas to Oaxaca and from the 1880s to the present, contributors write about file clerks and movie stars, wealthy world travelers and ordinary people whose adventures were confined to a bar in the middle of town. The Mexicans we meet in these essays lived out their identities through extraordinary events--committing terrible crimes, writing world-famous songs, and ruling the nation--but also in everyday activities like falling in love, raising families, getting dressed, and going to the movies. Thus, these essays in the history of masculinity connect the major topics of Mexican political history since 1880 to the history of daily life. Part of the Diálogos Series of Latin American Studies